Today’s OMG WE’RE TOTALLY DOOMED (unless you give up your freedom and money to Government) moment
Climate change could lead to more infections from parasitic worms
Fossil records suggest that there could be another consequence of climate change and rising sea levels: an increase in parasitic worm infections.
Scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Bologna studied clams collected in northern Italy that date back to the Holocene Epoch, a time when the planet was warming up after the Ice Age. Parasitic worms called trematodes, also known as flukes and flatworms, would attempt to feed on these ancient clams and the clams would respond by developing pits to keep them out.
By looking at the pits, the researchers learned that the presence of trematodes increased during relatively short periods of sea level rise.
“Based on what we know of these sediments, these were processes happening on the scale of hundreds of years, rather than thousands,” said John Huntley, a paleontologist at Mizzou.
Of course, despite some further doomy discussion in the article and from Mr. Huntley, we learn
However, researchers haven’t figured out how sea level rise could increase infections from parasitic worms. Huntley’s team recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to help understand that connection.
The seas go up, the seas go down. What caused the last glaciation period to end, leading to a massive sea rise? And why can’t the current warm period be mostly/solely caused by the same?
